Below you can read about where we work, and in addition we have this exciting 4 minute video to show you. Eventually this video will be in the About Us - What We Do section. We welcome your feedback to our our first try and making an Atlas Corps Video!
For our pilot year, Atlas Corps works in India, Colombia, and the United States (Washington, D.C. and Wilmington, DE). We eventually plan to expand around the world.Although, not immediately obvious, we chose these four areas for a few very compelling reasons.
First, these are four corners of the world where the founder, Scott Beale, has strong ties in the citizen, government and business sectors. Scott grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and earned his Masters in Public Administration at the University of Delaware. Scott lived in Washington, DC for ten years, graduating from Georgetown University and then working in the White House and for Youth Venture (an Ashoka: Innovators for the Public) in D.C. Later, Scott moved to New Delhi, India to work for the U.S. State Department coordinating the U.S. Government's efforts to fight human trafficking in India. And now, Scott is about to move to Colombia where his soon-to-be wife will work at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.
The second reasons these areas were chosen is to pilot the model in two very different "global south" nations and two very different U.S. cities. India will soon have the largest population in the world and is the home to most of the world's poorest people. Despite (or perhaps because of) these challenges they have a well developed citizen sector. Colombia is a much smaller, in a real sense wealthier country, but has struggled from years of military conflict and a country ravaged by the drug war. By taking rising stars from these two very different countries, Atlas Corps can better prove that the model will work worldwide. On the U.S. side, we chose two cities that were close to each other for logistical reasons, but did not just want to bring Fellows to a big city like Washington, D.C.By bringing Fellows to Wilmington, Delaware we hope to demonstrate the values of these Fellows all across the United States -- in small town and large cities many of the challenges face in the citizen sector are universal; and, no matter where we live we can learn from others who live in far away countries.
Atlas
Corps has plans to expand and will probably add Mexico as its third country and have considered South Africa, Bosnia, China and many other countries in the future. On the U.S. side, we will probably stay on the east coast for the first five years for logistical simplicity, but would like to expand to Baltimore, Richmond, New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Boston in the near future. We are also seriously considering expanding to Chicago/St. Louis and San Francisco depending on fundraising success and where we find strong partners. If you live in a different part of the country and still want to get involved, our founder travels across the country about twice a year and may be coming to a city near you. We recommend you check out the upcoming events and get involved!